Jade
by The Lazy Panda
Summary: Xander dressed differently on Halloween.


Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Xander/Halloween Idea

Jade 1

_Once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance he left. Motion, of necessity, involves a change in perspective._

_Commissioner Pravin Lal_

_"A Social History of Planet"_

_-Alpha Centauri_

It is surprising how such a small thing can make such a difference, of course for Xander the thing wasn't so small.

Xander were staring straight ahead, completely motionless and unresponsive as the schoolnurse checked him over. Before his minds eye the event replayed again and again. Listening to the chemistry teacher idly, tuning out most of it. Then when the teacher finished turning to the burner and turning it on.

When nothing had happened he blinked in confusion, then, he flicked it on and off, testing to see if anything happened. The burner stubbornly refused to start, so, Xander leaned forward to check on it.

It was at this point the teacher switched the main control for the gas to the burners, and so, Xanders vision was filled with flames.

Which led to the current situation, Xander sitting at the bed in the nurses office, eyes wide open and almost popping out, rocking back and forth a bit with his hair still smoking. It was rather unfortunate for Xander that he had slid so far into shock, because if he hadn't he might have heard the school nurse telling him that "The hair has to come off," and he might have protested and protect it.

Unfortunately he didn't hear a word she said, and the nurse took this as a permission and went to work with a razor.

Xander stared at the image with a kind of horrified fascination. 'It's just like a cueball...', he really couldn't express his exact feelings on the matter. To top it all off Halloween was coming up fast, and he knew that this was going to drop the amount of candy he could get. "Maybe I should just stay home..." the young teen murmured to himself.

After all, while it might have been 'cute' on a kid a shaved head on a teenager meant 'punk' and might very well lead to doors being slammed in the face and calls to the police by hysteric old ladies. Sighing to himself he could just think 'Well... at least it can't get any worse now' to himself. Immediately after this a chill went down his spine, like someone had walked over his grave.

Xander sneered at Snyders back, Buffy, Willow and he himself having just been "Volunteered" to act as chaperons and caretakers of a bunch of brats. 'Still...' he realized, 'this might mean more candy'. Little children are always good for candy on Halloween, even if they are obnoxious.

He idly scratched the small stubs on his head that passed a his hair for now, having started to slowly grow back. He still had no idea what costume to get after all, his plans so far only having stretched to a toy gun and some cheap military fatigues.

Xander looked around the store, it looked pretty good this 'Ethan's' or whatever it was called. Watching Buffy and Willow dive into a racket of dresses he started to walk around, checking things out.

Finding a showcase of guns he frowned as he realized they were a bit outside what he wanted to pay, looking around he saw a box labelled 'Bargains! Cheap!'. Sighing to himself he strolled over, lazily browsing through it.

Whatever hopes he may have had to find something were quickly dashed as he realized the vast majority of the items in the box were either junk from mistakes in the factory or parts of sets that had been damaged.

Pushing the more interesting things into a pile he sized it up. 'Not good, not good at all...'

The different items were simply _too_ different, he just couldn't figure out some way to make a costume out of them. Suddenly something clicked and he picked up two of the 'Bargain' items and held the in front of his face.

One of them was a fake beard, a goatee to be precise. The other item was a torn piece of fabric. The goatee had seen better days to be honest, but it would probably suffice for one more evening. The piece of fabric had at some point most likely been a dashing red shirt with a scorpion on it. Now all that remained was the tail.

Xander thought back to the chemistry accident and himself in the mirror, then he looked back at what he held in front of himself. He winced as he realized he would have to shave himself again. Even so, he had to admit he liked the idea.

As he started towards the counter he saw something in the edge of his eye that made him stop in his tracks. When he had sifted through the bargain box he had discarded many items, one of which was a broken necklace which were quite clearly girly. Even so, with his new idea in mind he relaized just how the necklace might fit in.

Or, to be more precise, the green plastic-crystals the necklace were made of.

Having spent some hours with the newly purchased fabric, a scissor and needle and threads, Xander was deeply regretting ever getting the idea. But he still felt a proud glow in his chest as he held up the black shirt, now bearing a red triangle with a scorpion tail in it.

Having cut the necklace open he, had 'borrowed' some plastic test tubes from chemistry(he figured they owed it to him after the accident, eve if it was his fault), putting some of the plastic-crystals into the test tubes an sealing them , and presto, the test tubes now looked like they contained a real lab sample of something.

A quick check with the shirt and goatee made him realize this might actually work. Closing his eyes he drew his hand through the stubble on his head, 'I can't believe I'm doing this voluntarily' he thought to himself. Removing goatee and shirt he brought the razor up, taking one last look in the mirror he went to work.

A hand raised to knock on the Summers door, then froze, hanging in the air in hesitation. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind, images of everyone laughing and pointing at him. A quick quiet thought suggested he could always go home and claim sickness. 'NO, I have to do this' steeling himself, Xander knocked.

As the door opened he saw the side of Mrs Summers face as she was talking to someone, he also saw the smile on her face as she turned her head, and the smile freezing in place as she saw him.

He smiled and waved "Hi",

Mrs Summers arched an eyebrow, "...Alexander?"

"Xander, please ma'am, is Buffy and Willow ready", he squirmed under her gaze as she took in the sight of him. Honestly he could understand.

A head as bald as the moon, wearing military fatigues with a strange scorpion symbol over the left side of his chest he must look like quite the sight.

"Xander, well, welcome. The girls should be ready right about now, please, come inside." nodding in thanks Xander slid inside as she opened the door and moved aside.

'42' he thought to himself as he kicked the stone yet again, still sulking. Really, he could understand it, but that didn't make it any better. Mrs Summers he had expected, Buffy he could completely understand. But for even Willow to have no idea who he had dresses as...

'Well, she never was one for games' he admitted to himself. The entire thing had gone from bad to worse at school, no-one recognizing who Xander had dressed as.

Leading the children up to the next house he gave the stone another kick, just for good measure.

A smile of unholy glee was etched into Ethan Raynes face. It only grew wider as the magic wave exploded forth from the statue of Janus, god of change and chaos.

_Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden. He drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life._

_The Conclave Bible_

_-Aplha Centauri, Alien Crossfire_

He brought a hand to his face as the entire world... bulged, for a lack of a better description. Looking around in confusion and befuddlement he took cover behind a car. He had no idea what was going on, where he was, or how he had gotten here.

Complete and utter confusion and being without any idea of what was going on was not something that happened to this man very often. On the other hand it wasn't any day he got transported from his temple to the middle of what looked like a mutant warzone.

As he looked around all he could see were destruction and chaos, not bad things in his own personal opinion, but what was bad were the fact he didn't recognize the things wreaking havoc. Dozens and dozens of small monsters demons and misfits and... "A pirate..." he mumbled out loud as he saw one diving into an alley.

Bringing a hand up he rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache approaching. "Xander!" a voice suddenly screamed and as he turned around he saw a... ghost, yes, a real-life... well, post-life anyway, ghost flying towards him.

It was then that Kane, leader of the Brotherhood of Nod realized something. This day was going to get much worse before it started getting better.

Xander had a killer head-ache, staring into the mirror he was greeted by his own blood-shot eyes wit dark circles under them ,and lets not forget about the fact that he was still bald. Feeling a new wave of nausea he bent over the sink, gripping his forehead with one hand to steady it and make the floor stop spinning.

He could remember some things from the day before, well... remember might be a strong word. He could see shadowy images of the day before, but they were scattered and without any sort of order to them. Some of them were probably just dreams, images of explosions, cheering crowds, and gigantic fields of green stretching before him.

As the floor finally stopped spinning he made his way to the library. There he would answer what he believed, that nothing permanent had happened from the night before. It was either fortunate or unfortunate that he didn't look under his bed, where some test tubes lay scattered on the floor.

Filled with strange green crystals that seemed to glow in the dark.

He knew he was going insane, he just knew it. After all since when had math been easy? And it wasn't just the math, biology, chemistry hell! He'd even understood what Willow was doing on her computer, and not only that he had seen how you could do it in a better way than she was doing.

And then there was the hair, it just wasn't growing back, and the goatee had stayed as well. He'd had to cover by saying that he like the style, the worst part about that was that he was starting to like it.

Xander knew he should tell Giles, even so... He had a test in math coming up. And it wasn't like it were harmful, right? No he'd tell Giles after the test... or maybe after that computer class test.

As the judge raised his hand he saw his death approaching, throwing the bazooka to Buffy he braced himself as he saw a light bursting forth from The Judges hand.

No one would see it, but as the light connected The Judges eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. Under all the years he had been alive and among all those he had "Purged" noone had had the same feel like this one.

As he was busy with the teen he didn't notice the Slayer firing her weapon, or the vampires that had been covering his rear diving away into cover.

Xander slowly stopped spasming and writhing on the floor as the rain of what had been The Judge came to an end. Opening an eye he saw Buffy hurling herself through a door. Wincing he stood up, checking to see if he was alright. To his surprise he was, just a slight dizziness and hotheadedness, otherwise he was completely fine.

Swaying a bit on his feet he made his way towards where Buffy had disappeared to.

He was worried he was really worried, the thoughts, the ideas, the visions... they just wouldn't leave him alone!. Like one day when he had started thinking about the whole Slayer system, he idly decided it was outdated and inefficient and were making a list of what to do instead one day when he was grocery shopping.

Another time he had gotten bored in Socila Studies and scratched a small blueprint for a UV-radiation pulse gun. He still had no idea how it worked or what some of the parts were, but as he had stared at it he had felt himself starting to, just like a distant memory returning.

Another time it was making contingency plans, after Buffy had let Angelus go he had actually caught himself plotting her... "unfortunate accident". He was losing it, he could almost feel himself losing it. And yet... what to do? If he went to giles the watcher might kill him.

It didn't occur to Xander that this might be a bout of paranoia from the same place the other thoughts came from. After all, from Xanders new point of view it made sense, to Giles Xander were expendable, and as such if he became a hindrance or threat would most likely be removed in the fastest smoothest way possibly.

'Buffy would probably help him feed me to Angelus' he thought with a wry smile, remembereing how upset she'd been the last time he'd suggested they must destroy the Vampire-Formerly-Known-As-Angel.

Some small part realised this might be an effect of Halloween, like his obsession with the crystals in the tubes he'd found under his bed. He knew what they must be, he just didn't want to admit it.

'I must do something' he realised, but what?

Xander stared at the open portal, then his eyes flickered to the Slayer and the Vampire. And suddenly it all became clear, how to avoid going insane and killing his friends, how to repay Buffy for plotting her murder, it all came together.

Sprinting out from behind the pillar he rushed forward just as Buffy thrust her sword through Angelus, just as Angelus turned back into Angel.

"Buffy? Where are we?" she froze as she heard those words, the tone of voice, the expression, somehow she knew this was Angel and that Angelus were gone.

Staring in mute horror she could see the portal growing bigger, feeling a horrible growing sensdation of despair she froze, having no idea what to do now.

Suddenly, a hand darted forward, gripped the sword and pulled it out of the vampire. As she started to turn she froze in horror, seeing Xander walking towards the portal.

"Tell Giles and Willow I said goodbye!" Xander tossed over his back before he jumped into the growing portal. As the portal closed, Buffy was left standing there, just as still as Acathla had been, and Angel were left without any idea of what was going on.

_Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded._

_Chairman Sheng-ji Yang_

_"Looking God in the Eye"_

_-Aplha Centauri_

There are many things beyond the understanding of humanity, The Powers That Be know a little more than humanity, unfortunately this blinds them to the fact that what they know is in the sum of things so insignificant it's almost nothing.

As such it's not so strange that they did not notice that one Alexander Lavelle Harris did in fact not go to hell, at least they did not notice immediately. By the time they noticed it was to late to do anything about it and all traces of where he had in fact gone had long since faded away.

The Powers That Be's reaction to this can be summarized as 'good riddance to bad rubbish' as they didn't care about him. His friends mourned but had to move on as events prevented them from taking time to grieve.

And so, a new chapter in the life of Xander Harris begins.

He had just enough time to blink in confusion before he started falling, opening his mouth to scream or shout he did so just in time to get a mouthful of dirt.

Spitting it out he stood up and looked around. 'It's... empty,' from horizon to horizon there were no real sight to see. Just grass swaying in the wind.

"Well, at least the airs breathable" he muttered to himself. Picking a direction at random he started walking. As his stomach growled to himself he hoped he'd find some sort of civilisation 'like a Twinkie bar' he thought to himself, stomach grumbling and a silly smile on his face a the thought of twinkies.

Feeling something poking his thigh he reached down into his pocket, blinking in confusion he fished up the tubes with the green crystal thingies. "Oh, yeah..." he mumbled to himself, remembering putting them there this morning. As his stomach growled again he desperately wished he'd brought Twinkies instead.

Putting them back into his pocket he continued walking, without any real goal or destination in mind.


End file.
